On the Downs

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Up the chalky path we wander

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Up the chalky path we wander,
Higher, higher still—
Gather thyme and hawkweed slender,
Bluebells of the hill;
Pale musk mallows by the cornfields,
Poppies bright and bold,
Scabious like the evening purple,
Gems amongst the gold.
And the knapweed and the bindweed,
Yarrow pink and white,
And St. John’s wort golden tufted,
Everywhere delight!
Up the chalky path we wander,
Higher, higher still,
Now upon the sunny hill-top
We can rest at will.
Far below the quiet valleys
Farms and sheep-cotes lie,
All above us deep and cloudless
Glows the summer sky.
Lying there we look in wonder
Through the skies afar,
Where unseen to us, are shining
Thousand thousand stars.
When the daylight sinks in purple
O’er the silent plain,
One by one, like gathering angels,
They appear again.
Soon, oh soon, the sweet still evening
Of our days will come—
Then will shine the hidden glory
Of our Father’s home.
Thousand, thousand radiant faces,
Faces of the past,
Our belovèd, hidden from us,
Smile to us at last.
Wonderful and blessèd evening—
Sudden, sweet surprise—
We shall hear the ancient voices,
See the long-lost eyes.
Here upon the sunny hill-top
Let us thank and praise,
For the blessèd eve that follows
All our summer days.

Translator: Frances Bevan

Bevan, Emma Frances, née Shuttleworth, daughter of the Rev. Philip Nicholas Shuttleworth, Warden of New Coll., Oxford, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, was born at Oxford, Sept. 25, 1827, and was married to Mr. R. C. L. Bevan, of the Lombard Street banking firm, in 1856.
Mrs. Bevan published in 1858 a series of translations from the German as Songs of Eternal Life (Lond., Hamilton, Adams, & Co.), in a volume which, from its unusual size and comparative costliness, has received less attention than it deserves, for the trs. are decidedly above the average in merit. A number have come into common use, but almost always without her name, the best known being those noted under “O Gott, O Geist, O Licht dea Lebens," and "Jedes Herz will etwas… Go to person page >